Uche Usim, Abuja

 

The Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) has urged the Senate to help mount pressure on obligors to pay up an outstanding N5 trillion debt currently choking it.

The Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of AMCON, Mr Ahmed Lawan Kuru, made the call for legislative support to his agency at the weekend when he led the management before a technical session of the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions in Abuja.

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The committee met to review the impact of COVID-19 on AMCON policies and processes, with a view to repositioning it for optimal performance amid the pandemic.

Kuru said: “We want the 9th Senate to pile pressure on some of our obligors through the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions under the leadership of Senator Uba Sani as chairman.

“Some of these obligors are very important members of the society and, as distinguished senators, I know you have all it takes to intervene and even compel AMCON obligors to meet their obligations. This is because we cannot over emphasise the importance of recovering the huge outstanding debts and the positive impact this will have on the Nigerian economy, which like other economies has been further challenged by the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Kuru noted that the corporation had, with the aid of the National Assembly, sought to address some of the challenges in the 2019 Amendment Act, the Senate needed to do more to support AMCON recovery efforts as some of the top obligors still hid under legal technicalities to tie AMCON in courts, exploring the loopholes in the Act prior to amendment, which was why the corporation had witnessed slow judicial process.